The Pentagon – trivia

Here’s some trivia about The Pentagon. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, “The Pentagon” is often used metonymically to refer to the U.S. Department of Defense.

The Pentagon has 7 floors, 5 of which above ground
If you’d put all corridors behind each other you could walk 28.2 km (17.5 miles). Even General Eisenhower has managed to get lost in there.
The central plaza of The Pentagon is informally known as ‘ground zero’. It got this nickname during the Cold War on the presumption that it would be targeted by the Soviet Union at the outbreak of nuclear war.
The Pentagon has no less than 284 bathrooms, twice the number needed for the anticipated staff levels. This was because of racial segregation. However, this was never put into use and all bathrooms have been open to all races right from the first day The Pentagon became operational.
The Pentagon is shaped like a pentagon because of the original planned building location, Arlington Farms. This idea was abandoned soon, however, over concerns about the sensitivity of placing a military complex so close to Arlington National Cemetery. Hoover Field, the first airport to service the Washington, D.C., was then selected as the new location. It was too late to start a new design process so the pentagon shape remained, although more straightened and smoothed.
It took 15000 workers only 16 months to build the Pentagon, working around the clock.
There are no elevators in The Pentagon. To conserve steel during WW II, ramps were implemented between the floors.
The United States Postal Service has established six ZIP Codes for The Pentagon, to which the place name “Washington, D.C.” is assigned, even though The Pentagon is actually located in Virginia. The Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the four service branches each have their own designated ZIP Code.
The people in The Pentagon use, on average, about 666 rolls of toilet paper every day.

(more to be added)

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